These apricot squares are truly special. How can one resist a heart-shaped apricots on a fluffy pastry all dusted with powdered sugar? Impossible!
With simple ingredients you already have in your pantry and in the fridge this gorgeous airy dough is ready in a blink of an eye.
All you have to do is get some fresh apricots from the local market to turn it into a masterpiece.
They’ve just started coming in season over here. And I gotta tell ya, fragrance of fresh organic apricots feels like haven.
Once you put them in the oven they’ll fill your house with that incredible aroma.
Enough to make anyone’s mouth water!!
Confess, just looking at this beauty, you already start dreaming of making them ASAP? 🙂
And as you’ve probably guessed already, these apricot bites are perfect for a crowded party.
And it’s not THAT easy to find such a simple (seasonal!) dessert that looks so luxurious!
Want to take your apricot bars to the next level?
TIP: Save the apricot pits! Crack them open and extract the seeds. They look like small almonds, and they’re DELICIOUS. This is what my mom has been doing for ages.
To be quite honey, it was not my favorite activity to crack the apricot pits (and I had to crack LOTS of them, almost like from every apricot we’d eaten that summer LOL) but at the end it was ALL totally worth it.
Watch step-by-step video here:
Fluffy Apricot Squares
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup flour
- ¾ cup sugar (1 cup for a sweeter dough)
- 6 oz / 1 ½ stick butter (softened)
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 8 fresh apricots
- confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Instructions
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Separate egg yolks from the egg whites.
Beat egg yolks with ¼ cup sugar.Mix in softened but not liquid butter.
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Add previously sieved and aerated flour together with the baking powder.
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If you’d like, at this point you can add some vanilla extra as well.
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The batter you got should have rather thick texture.
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Beat egg whites with the remaining sugar and about a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice. When you see soft to medium peaks starts to form, it’s ready.
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Gently fold in fluffy egg whites into the batter. Add a spoon or two at a time.
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Spread the batter over a baking sheet lines with a parchment paper.
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Wash, dry and pit the apricots. Cut them through the natural spit line, remove the pit.
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Place apricot halves onto the dough, cut side up. No need to squeeze them too much into the dough. They might even seem to be “falling out” but the oven will do its magic.
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Bake at 350F 20-25 minutes.
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Let cool completely and generously dust with confectioner’s sugar.
Notes
Whether I was able to sell you on cracking the apricot pits or not, you just GOTTA make this DESSERT! Promise? 🙂
